Heceta Head to get 'a top-to-bottom restoration'

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Susan Licht, top left, a preservation architect with the Oregon Parks and Recreation department, leads a tour up the stairways to the top level of the Heceta Head Lighthouse on May 13, 2011 in Yachats, Ore. The 118-year-old lighthouse isn't winning any beauty contests. Its corbels are cracked, the metal rusted, its layers and layers of paint chipped. And, as one historic preservationist put it, the poor thing can't breathe. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is about to embark on a $1.3 million do-over. Work will begin on Aug. 1, closing the entire area for about one to two months. The trails, parking lot and oil house will reopen at about the end of September or possibly sooner. The 56-foot lighthouse itself could be closed for up to two years. (AP Photo/The Oregonian, Randy L. Rasmussen)